Hakro 2020

Interview with Axl Jansen
Sought-after fashion photographer
Axl Jansen staged for us the theme:
Colours against the everyday greyness.
He uses 15 models in 8 images to show
stages of a working day. Here he tells
us his current favourite colour and why
teamwork is essential for his work.
How did you get into your profession?
Through many coincidences and my love
of music. I was actually in the process of
becoming a musician, but my fellow musicians
convinced me that I am better at taking
photographs than I am at making music.
What fascinates you about your work?
I think that in my job you need to be able
to do completely different things which
don’t necessarily have anything to do with
the original job: you need to tell stories,
anticipate trends, lead teams, motivate
models, understand clients and at the
same time be able to take photographs.
What is your view of the world as an
artist?
It’s my secret mission to make every
day that bit more beautiful. I’m delighted
when I can steer people’s gaze towards
the unseen and move the viewer in some
way. Fashion photography can be highly
entertaining.
What makes a good team?
What does it stand for?
Good teams are well-coordinated and
react brilliantly to external circumstances.
As a fashion photographer you are in credibly
dependent on the team. When the right
people for make-up, hair and styling come
together on a photoshoot, then that’s half
the job done for me. There are often a dozen
people on the set, just to photograph a
single person. Team players are a fundamental
requirement for a good job.
For our photo shoot, it was the other way
around for a change: the team was the
subject.
Team building was needed even here. It
took about half a day until every one of the
15 models reacted to small cues and the
cooperation worked well. It was a bit like a
football team with me as the coach.
How did you chose the locations?
I wanted to photograph urban spaces in
order to portray the daily routine of a fictional
colourised group of people. The places
needed to be architecturally interesting
and tell the story of the image together
with the people. The grey background
was also important of course, in order to
accentuate the colourful worlds of HAKRO
perfectly.
Talking of colour, what is your favourite
colour?
Really you should ask what my favourite
colour is at the moment, as for me it changes
from season to season. Currently it is orange.
I’ve ignored this colour for a long time, but
now suddenly I’m almost in love with it.
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